As a Christian, I am called to live my faith with the utmost zeal and point others to Christ through my daily actions. I am called to give Him the glory, honor and praise, in every circumstance. I am called to be a disciple of Christ and be a light for Him in the darkness that is consuming our world. I am called to love. And I am called to do all of these things and more, unapologetically.
To some of us, this may not seem to hard to do in our daily lives; we are surrounded by our church friends, who meet us for coffee and a devotional, hold the same world views as we do and who love the Lord like we do.
Now. Pause.
How many times have you seen or read an article shared on Facebook or Twitter that you knew went completely against Christ’s teachings and scrolled by without standing up for what you know is right? How many times have you decided to text the link of a Christian article to a few friends instead of posting it, for the fear of offending someone you know who doesn’t share your beliefs? Or maybe, it’s because you don’t want to deal with the argumentative comments that surely will appear, simply because your views contradict what popular society says is “okay” or even “good”. I know I’m guilty of this.
Here’s the thing, being a disciple of the Living God isn’t easy. It’s not supposed to be easy and it may even be scary. Christ himself was mocked, whipped and hung on a cross to die, because He shared the faith. I know, you’ve heard that a million times, but, seriously, let that sink in. Our Savior died for the faith.
Bare with me, this post isn’t going to be about Bruce Jenner, (there are a lot of theologians who are more equipped with biblical knowledge to share Christian perspective on that topic than I am) but his recent, mega-public, transition has left many Christians speechless and scared to speak out (myself included) for fear of what those around them would reply.
Earlier today, I sat for about 20 minutes deciding whether or not to share an article regarding Jenner’s transition, which was written from a Christian perspective of love and mourning, because I was terrified of people would reply. Sure enough, within 10 minutes of having decided to share it someone had shared the link from my profile with the caption “this article is disgusting”. At first I took it personally and even contemplated deleting the article from my profile, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized how silly that would be to do.
Not once, did Christ stop teaching and remaining steadfast in the Father’s will, not even when the crowds who once loved Him screamed, “crucify Him”. Surely, if He could endure that I can endure a few people thinking an article I shared was “disgusting”, because it didn’t align with their views.
But if we live in a country with freedom of speech and freedom of religion, why do we shy away from sharing our faith? The answer is quite simple: tolerance doesn’t go both ways in our society. Christian’s are expected to accept the ways of the world or insults telling us we aren’t “loving like Christ did” are quick to be thrown our way, but few are willing to accept us living our teachings that have been past down for thousands of years.
The freedoms our country gives us, theoretically, should go both ways, but realistically do not. The fact is, just because a Christian doesn’t agree with someone’s lifestyle doesn’t mean we don’t do our best not to love that person as Christ would. In fact, I have yet to have heard a Christian or read a Christian article that has labeled Jenner’s transition as “disgusting”, yet the majority of society seems to enjoy throwing words like that at Christians who are sharing their faith respectfully.
So, if a Christian is supposed to respectfully tolerate lifestyles that contradict Christian beliefs, would it not also make sense that someone who is not a Christian should respectfully tolerate our beliefs?
As a Christian, I am called to live my faith with the utmost zeal and point others to Christ through my daily actions. I am called to give Him the glory, honor and praise, in every circumstance. I am called to be a disciple of Christ and be a light for Him in the darkness that is consuming our world. I am called to love. I am called to do all of these things and more, unapologetically, and I am sorry if my doing these things offends you, but I will not be pushed into silence, because the world try’s to tell me the one, true, living God is wrong.
To some of us, this may not seem to hard to do in our daily lives; we are surrounded by our church friends, who meet us for coffee and a devotional, hold the same world views as we do and who love the Lord like we do.
Now. Pause.
How many times have you seen or read an article shared on Facebook or Twitter that you knew went completely against Christ’s teachings and scrolled by without standing up for what you know is right? How many times have you decided to text the link of a Christian article to a few friends instead of posting it, for the fear of offending someone you know who doesn’t share your beliefs? Or maybe, it’s because you don’t want to deal with the argumentative comments that surely will appear, simply because your views contradict what popular society says is “okay” or even “good”. I know I’m guilty of this.
Here’s the thing, being a disciple of the Living God isn’t easy. It’s not supposed to be easy and it may even be scary. Christ himself was mocked, whipped and hung on a cross to die, because He shared the faith. I know, you’ve heard that a million times, but, seriously, let that sink in. Our Savior died for the faith.
Bare with me, this post isn’t going to be about Bruce Jenner, (there are a lot of theologians who are more equipped with biblical knowledge to share Christian perspective on that topic than I am) but his recent, mega-public, transition has left many Christians speechless and scared to speak out (myself included) for fear of what those around them would reply.
Earlier today, I sat for about 20 minutes deciding whether or not to share an article regarding Jenner’s transition, which was written from a Christian perspective of love and mourning, because I was terrified of people would reply. Sure enough, within 10 minutes of having decided to share it someone had shared the link from my profile with the caption “this article is disgusting”. At first I took it personally and even contemplated deleting the article from my profile, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized how silly that would be to do.
Not once, did Christ stop teaching and remaining steadfast in the Father’s will, not even when the crowds who once loved Him screamed, “crucify Him”. Surely, if He could endure that I can endure a few people thinking an article I shared was “disgusting”, because it didn’t align with their views.
But if we live in a country with freedom of speech and freedom of religion, why do we shy away from sharing our faith? The answer is quite simple: tolerance doesn’t go both ways in our society. Christian’s are expected to accept the ways of the world or insults telling us we aren’t “loving like Christ did” are quick to be thrown our way, but few are willing to accept us living our teachings that have been past down for thousands of years.
The freedoms our country gives us, theoretically, should go both ways, but realistically do not. The fact is, just because a Christian doesn’t agree with someone’s lifestyle doesn’t mean we don’t do our best not to love that person as Christ would. In fact, I have yet to have heard a Christian or read a Christian article that has labeled Jenner’s transition as “disgusting”, yet the majority of society seems to enjoy throwing words like that at Christians who are sharing their faith respectfully.
So, if a Christian is supposed to respectfully tolerate lifestyles that contradict Christian beliefs, would it not also make sense that someone who is not a Christian should respectfully tolerate our beliefs?
As a Christian, I am called to live my faith with the utmost zeal and point others to Christ through my daily actions. I am called to give Him the glory, honor and praise, in every circumstance. I am called to be a disciple of Christ and be a light for Him in the darkness that is consuming our world. I am called to love. I am called to do all of these things and more, unapologetically, and I am sorry if my doing these things offends you, but I will not be pushed into silence, because the world try’s to tell me the one, true, living God is wrong.